This invention broadly relates to internal combustion engines, and more particularly to a device within the engine for producing a homogeneous mixture of fuel and air for distribution to the engine's cylinders.
The most common automotive fuel, gasoline, is not composed of uniform hydrocarbon molecules. Gasoline is actually a mixture of many different compounds that are distilled from crude oil, and each distillate vaporizes differently. Some parts of gasoline vaporize easily at low temperatures to help a cold engine start. Other parts have a much higher point to prevent the fuel from vaporizing in the fuel lines enroute to the engine.
Without complete vaporization a truly homogeneous air-fuel mixture is not formed between the carburetor (or fuel injection unit) and the engine's intake manifold. Conventional carburetors attempt to vaporize the gasoline with atomizing nozzles, but not all of the fuel atomized by the nozzles of the carburetor in a conventional internal combustion engine truly forms into a homogeneous air-fuel mixture. As a result, in a typical conventional internal combustion engine, only part of the fuel entering the combustion chambers is in a combustible state. Without a truly homogeneous air-fuel mixture there is only partial combustion of the fuel. This leads to exhaust gas problems, a reduction in engine efficiency, and increased consumption of fuel.